School

King James Dictionary

School n. L. schola Gr. leisure, vacation from business, lucubration at leisure, a place where leisure is enjoyed, a school. The adverb signifies at ease, leisurely, slowly, hardly, with labor or difficulty. I think, must have been derived from the Latin. This word seems originally to have denoted leisure, freedom from business, a time given to sports, games or exercises, and afterwards time given to literary studies. the sense of a crowd, collection or shoal, seems to be derivative.

1. A place or house in which persons are instructed in arts, science, languages or any species of learning or the pupils assembled for instruction. In American usage, school more generally denotes the collective body of pupils in any place of instruction, and under the direction and discipline of one or more teachers. Thus we say, a school consists of fifty pupils. The preceptor has a large school, or a small school. His discipline keeps the school well regulated and quiet. 2. The instruction or exercises of a collection of pupils or students, or the collective body of pupils while engaged in their studies. Thus we say, the school begins or opens at eight o'clock, that is, the pupils at that hour begin their studies. so we say, the teacher is now in school, the school hours are from nine to twelve, and from two to five. 3. The state of instruction.

Set him betimes to school.

4. A place of education, or collection of pupils, of any kind as the schools of the prophets. In modern usage, the word school comprehends every place of education, as university, college, academy, common or primary schools, dancing schools, riding schools, &c. but ordinarily the word is applied to seminaries inferior to universities and colleges.

What is the great community of christians, but one of the innumerable schools in the vast plan, which God has instituted for the education of various intelligences?

5. Separate denomination or sect or a system of doctrine taught by particular teachers, or peculiar to any denomination of christians or philosophers.

Let no man be less confident in his faith - by reason of any difference in the several schools of christians -

Thus we say, the Socratic school, the Platonic school, the Peripatetic or Ionic school by which we understand all those who adopted and adhered to a particular system of opinions.

6. The seminaries for teaching logic, metaphysics and theology, which were formed in the middle ages, and which were characterized by academical disputations and subtilties of reasoning or the learned men who were engaged in discussing nice points in metaphysics or theology.

The supreme authority of Aristotle in the schools of theology as well as of philosophy -

Hence, school divinity is the divinity which discusses nice points, and proves every thing by argument.

7. Any place of improvement or learning. The world is an excellent school to wise men, but a school of vice to fools.

SCHOOL,

1. To instruct to train to educate.

He's gentle, never school'd, yet learn'd.

2. To teach with superiority to tutor to chide and admonish to reprove.

School your child, and ask why God's anointed he revil'd.

Holman Bible Dictionary

school   Acts 19:9

A new stage in Jewish education came about due to the catastrophe of the Babylonian Exile when the upper classes of Judea were transported to Babylon. The Exiles assembled on the Sabbath for prayer and worship. As time went by, buildings were erected in which the people could meet. These little gatherings were the origin of the synagogue, which ultimately became the center of Jewish religious life after the Exile. In the synagogue the scribes taught the Law to the people. Children were not taught in the synagogue until much later times. The father was responsible for transmitting what he had learned to his children.

The attempt of Antiochus Epiphanes to eradicate Judaism by force brought about the fierce nationalistic revolt of the Maccabees (Jewish patriots) in 168 B.C. See Intertestamental History. The Jews who had remained faithful learned a lesson. They saw that they needed schools for the young as well as adult classes for their fathers. Simon ben Shetah, the leader of the Pharisees, founded schools for boys of sixteen and seventeen to promote the study of the Scriptures. A century later, as an inevitable consequence, private schools for younger children appeared. After the destruction of Herod's Temple by Titus in A.D. 70 and the disappearance of the Jewish state after the revolt of Bar-Kochba in A.D. 135, public instruction was instituted for all children.

The elementary school, significantly called Beth-hasepher , the “house of the book,” was originally housed in some easily available room; but by A.D. 200, it had become firmly established in the synagogue. Boys entered at the age of six or seven and continued until thirteen. Here, study was wholly devoted to the written Law. This involved the learning of Hebrew, since Aramaic had long before replaced Hebrew as the everyday language of the people. Knowledge of the written word, in school as in the home, had the religious goal of bringing about obedience to the Law.

The school was not only a place of learning but a house of prayer; its aims were not cultural but religious. A strong sense of community responsibility, evidenced by an education tax on all parents, had by A.D. 200 opened all schools to the children of the poor. However, the Jewish school, like the Greek school, remained an independent fee-paying institution. See Education; Scribes; Synagogue; Torah .

Jeff Cranford

Webster's Dictionary

(1): ( n.) The disciples or followers of a teacher; those who hold a common doctrine, or accept the same teachings; a sect or denomination in philosophy, theology, science, medicine, politics, etc.

(2): ( n.) A place for learned intercourse and instruction; an institution for learning; an educational establishment; a place for acquiring knowledge and mental training; as, the school of the prophets.

(3): ( n.) A place of primary instruction; an establishment for the instruction of children; as, a primary school; a common school; a grammar school.

(4): ( n.) A session of an institution of instruction.

(5): ( n.) One of the seminaries for teaching logic, metaphysics, and theology, which were formed in the Middle Ages, and which were characterized by academical disputations and subtilties of reasoning.

(6): ( n.) The room or hall in English universities where the examinations for degrees and honors are held.

(7): ( n.) An assemblage of scholars; those who attend upon instruction in a school of any kind; a body of pupils.

(8): ( n.) A shoal; a multitude; as, a school of fish.

(9): ( n.) The canons, precepts, or body of opinion or practice, sanctioned by the authority of a particular class or age; as, he was a gentleman of the old school.

(10): ( n.) Figuratively, any means of knowledge or discipline; as, the school of experience.

(11): ( v. t.) To train in an institution of learning; to educate at a school; to teach.

(12): ( v. t.) To tutor; to chide and admonish; to reprove; to subject to systematic discipline; to train.

People's Dictionary of the Bible

School,  Acts 19:9; Scholar,  1 Chronicles 25:8; School-master, R. V. "tutor."  Galatians 3:24. Schools were established under the prophets to train young men to become expounders of Jewish law, and to fit them for the priestly and prophetical offices.  1 Samuel 19:18-24;  2 Kings 2:3;  2 Kings 2:5;  2 Kings 2:7;  2 Kings 2:15. The office nearly answered to that of a governor or tutor,  Galatians 4:2-3, who constantly attends his pupil, teaches him, and forms his manners. Maimonides thus describes a Jewish school: "The teacher sat at the head, and the pupils surrounded him as the crown the head, so that every one could see the teacher and hear his words. The teacher did not sit in a chair while the pupils sat on the ground, but all either sat on chairs or on the ground." The children read aloud to acquire fluency. The number of school-hours was limited, and during the heat of the summer was only four hours. The punishment employed was beating with a strap, never with a rod. The chief studies were their own language and literature; the chief school-book the Holy Scriptures.

Vine's Expository Dictionary of NT Words

1: Σχολή (Strong'S #4981 — Noun Feminine — schole — schol-ay' )

(whence Eng., "school") primarily denotes "leisure," then, "that for which leisure was employed, a disputation, lecture;" hence, by metonymy, "the place where lectures are delivered, a school,"  Acts 19:9 .

Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament

See Education, Tyrannus.

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

occurs in the A.V. but once ( Acts 19:9) as the rendering of the Greek Σχολή (from which the English word is derived), meaning originally Leisure; hence, a place of tuition. (See Tyrannus).